A little aching and fuzzy-headed today after a lovely few days in the Usk valley for Green Man festival. For the first time in three years we got a consistent view of the mountains around us, and barely a drop of drizzle until Monday morning. Our filmtent stuff went really well on the whole; very lively kids matinees, an attentive crowd for The Moon and the Sledgehammer, nice shambolic Sugarfoot boogying and a queue right across the field for British Sea Power, who did not disappoint. So exciting to be sat in a tent rammed with people watching a beautiful old movie with a great live band. A word also for Paul Shallcross, who accompanied silent comedy on Sunday morning and went down a treat. I had forgotten how brutal and hilarious Laurel and Hardy were in their pre-talkie days, and if hordes of children went on a destructive rampage that day it was probably our fault.

Of course we weren’t the only attraction of the weekend. Some of our highlights included -
(more…)

As we pack our bags for Green Man, here are my top 5 things for the month….

1) Moon (dir: Duncan Jones)
Saw it last night and was well impressed. Saturated in 70s sci-fi influences, but still its own film. Brummie-spotters should listen out for a nifty Clint Mansell score and adman Trevor Beattie also put some money in.

2) The Shape of Things to Come by Greil Marcus
Being a big fan of Lipstick Traces (which gets a 20th anniversary reissue this year) it was exciting to stumble on this in the library. Marcus can be quite dense and tangential but it’s worth hanging on for the ride with this one, a rollercoaster thesis on American prophets which goes from Lincoln and MLK to Laura Palmer and riot grrrl, finishing off with David Thomas of Pere Ubu. (Thomas is popping up in the lit tent at Green Man.)

3) It Felt Like a Kiss (dir: Adam Curtis)
Curtis has kindly posted the entire one-hour film from his recent Punchdrunk collaboration in Manchester. They’re touring it next year and it may not be online for long. Bit of a rehash of some of his other work, but some marvellous tunes and editing.

4) Ambivalence Avenue by Bibio
We already plugged this, but that was before we listened to it properly. It’s bloody gorgeous, a perfect summer album. Go get it!

5) We Love You So
If you’re going to plug a movie, why not add something to the world in the process? The trailers for Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are have been getting grown men all squishy, and the WLYS blog has updates on the film, Sendak online and also a plethora of vaguely related tipoffs on design, film, childrens lit and all sorts. Thanks to them we looked up the work of John and Faith Hubley, Google’s archive of Village Voice back-issues, and this smart video for Sour:

The trailer for Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr Fox, on the other hand, does not look so hot.